[gnso-rpm-wg] Action Items, Slides and Notes from the Working Group call held earlier today

[Bret Fausett]

> to the extent there are issues with the bona fides of individual registrations, the underlying trademark registration, and its recordal in the TMCH (www.trademark‑clearinghouse.com/dispute <http://clearinghouse.com/dispute>) are already subject to challenge.  Would you be able to help this group understand why you view these as insufficient measures?

I think any challenge mechanism that relies on good samaritans for enforcement is insufficient. 

If I am pre-empted in my registration of “internet.TLD” or “online.TLD,” because someone had registered them in sunrise with “marks” that should not have been approved, my options at that point are to file a TMCH dispute, which costs at least $200 and will last for at least a month. At the end of that process, even if I am right, the trademark is marked as invalid, but I don’t get the domain name that I was blocked from registering. 

If I want to file a sunrise challenge with the registry, depending on the registry’s policy, I may be awarded the domain name, but I am not guaranteed to be awarded the domain name. Those processes also take time and money. 

So it really takes a determined individual or company, with time and money, to pursue these challenges. 

If I were adjusting these processes for Round 2, I would give the complainant a presumptive right to register the challenged domains if and after the TMCH registration was deemed invalid. That would provide better motivation to pursue the existing remedies.

      - Bret


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